I believe most non profits are under the impression that there are hundreds of would-be donors out there who as long as you ask are ready to “give” you money, it’s just a question of getting out there and asking.
Then once you have these donors they will just stick around and give you more money.
This of course is far from reality, but it creates an expectation that fundraisers are in the business of just asking for money from very willing people.
So, for fundraisers if you are not raising enough money then you’re simply not asking enough people and the problem therefore lies with the fundraiser.
The truth of course is donors have more choice than ever before, connecting with donors is harder than ever (offline) and the internal pressure and unrealistic expectations, is either making more fundraisers leave the sector or leave them struggling in a highly stressful job.
What gets me out of bed in the morning is being able to help fundraisers learn how to unlock the power to LinkedIn and other social tools. Offline the world makes it near impossible to connect with high quality prospects in good enough numbers. Online, the whole thing is designed to connect you to a network.
I help fundraisers find, connect and start relationships online (in much greater numbers than you can reach offline), so you have a solid pipeline of qualified prospects coming to you rather than you doing all the chasing.
Funders do not want to be chased anymore – they want to proactively find the charities they wish to invest in. So I help fundraisers be found by funders who are looking.
It works, I get fantastic feedback from the charities I work with. Hearing how fundraisers are being approached by donors, just by using LinkedIn intentionally and purposefully is brilliant. It’s a joy to help fundraisers be in control of pulling in great prospects and even more importantly being able to repeat the process over and over.